


The Past is a Foreign Country

by Anthemyst



Series: Generations Past and Future [6]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Gabriel Is Not Hawkmoth, Gen, Guilt, Redemption, Time travel kinda, Unintended Consequences, this one's gonna focus almost entirely on emma so fair warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-06-19 21:32:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15519015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anthemyst/pseuds/Anthemyst
Summary: The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.It's been four years since Emma and her siblings used their Miraculouses to rescue their parents and save Europe from the sinister Order. She's spent that time in pursuit of a magical breakthrough which will ensure nothing like the Order's occupation ever happens again. But consequences are hard to predict, and Emma is not the only person desperate to redeem the ways she's fallen short.Sequel toWhere Have All The Heroes Gone And Where Are All The Gods?.





	1. Chapter 1

November 18th, 2044

The day Simon Aubert’s world fell apart was not a normal day. His days hadn’t been normal for almost three months now. It was, however, the kind of day that had begun to seem normal. Anything could begin to seem normal, if you did it long enough.

Wake up, shower, dress for work. Change the baby’s diaper, dress him in the fleece hand-me-down onesie from Alice’s sister. Watch the morning broadcast. Take the daycare bag from Alice, kiss her cheek, leave the house. Buckle the baby in his car seat, be ready to leave by the time curfew lifts. Drive. Stop at the red lights. Stop at the checkpoint. Show the Order officer your ID. Keep driving. Drop the baby off. Drive to work. Another officer at the door, another ID check, walk to your desk, sit down, work. Try not to think about anything but spreadsheets for a few hours.

At 5:30, Simon’s phone rang.

“Hi, Mr. Aubert, this is Therese from La Bambinerie, I’m calling about your son Adam.” The head of the daycare spoke the words as though she’d said them a million times before. “He’s fine,” she added quickly, anticipating Simon’s first thought, “he’s perfectly fine, but your wife hasn’t come to pick him up yet. Now I know in the past we’ve been flexible about pick-up times, but with the curfews lately I really do have to insist on-“

“Alice hasn’t picked him up?” Simon frowned. “I’m sorry, she must be held up at work. I’ll-“

“I called her office first, actually, they said she left early to run some errands. She’s not answering her cell phone.”

Errands? “I see. I’ll be there at once.”

“Thank you, Mr. Aubert, I appreciate that.”

Simon tried to call his wife repeatedly as he shut down his computer, informed his boss he needed to leave early, and made his way out of the office building, but just as Therese said, Alice wasn’t answering. The guard grinned at Simon as he reached the exit. “Simon! Ducking out early, getting a head start on the weekend, huh?”

Simon wished the guard wouldn’t insist on a first-name-basis relationship, but there was nothing he could do about it. “Yeah, something like that,” he said, forcing a smile as the guard gave his ID a cursory glance and cheerfully waved him along.

As he drove back to the daycare, Simon tried to remember if Alice had mentioned any errands. Nothing came to mind. She worked as an editor for the paper. She ended every work day at five, went to pick up Adam, and took him straight home. There was a time, not too long ago, when she might have brought him to the park first. But it was colder now, and there were enough guards around that hanging out in public was more trouble than it was worth, even for a pair as unthreatening as a mother and her infant. And even if it wasn’t, Alice wouldn’t have gone off unannounced _before_ picking Adam up. Simon couldn’t make any sense of it.

As Simon pulled into the building’s parking lot, he saw two official vehicles parked right outside the front door. His stomach knotting, his sense of dread growing ever stronger and more certain, Simon made his way over. There was a guard stationed right at the entrance. “I’m-” Simon didn’t even get a second word out, didn’t have a chance to pull out his ID, before the guard wordlessly took his arm and pulled him inside. He escorted Simon through the familiar halls of the daycare, to Adam’s room.

Inside, Adam played by himself on the floor, all the other children long gone. Therese was there, along with a young woman named Suzanne who supervised Adam’s age group, and a man Simon had never seen before. He was clearly Order, although his outfit was far nicer than the uniform of a common guard. He smiled coldly as Simon was brought in. “Mr. Aubert,” he said. “We missed you at your office. You left early, they said. In a hurry to get somewhere?”

“No, I,” Simon looked at Therese. She was white as a sheet. Next to her, Suzanne was visibly shaking, and her eyes were red. “No, Therese called and asked me to come pick my son up.”

“Papa!” Adam called from the floor. He waved around a colorful block and held up his arms. “Papa, up!” Simon resisted the urge to go to his son. He stayed where he was and kept his gaze locked on the agent.

“Why today?”

For the life of him, Simon couldn’t imagine what the hell was going on. “My wife was… held up.”

The agent’s eyebrows raised at Simon’s mention of Alice. “Held up doing what?”

Simon was suddenly certain that the agent already knew the answer to his question. “I have no idea,” Simon said. “She’s not answering her phone.”

The agent nodded. “I see.” He looked past Simon, at the guard who had escorted him in. “Seal the exits,” he said. “No one comes in or out of this building until I’m done interrogating the prisoner.” He turned to Therese. “Is there some private room I could have the use of?”

“My office,” Therese said numbly. “Front of the building. You’re,” she took a shaky breath, “you’re welcome to it as long as you need it, of course.”

“Prisoner?” Simon shook his head. “That’s not-”

“Oh, it’s just a technicality, Mr. Aubert,” the agent said breezily. “As long as you remain cooperative, there won’t be any need for unpleasant measures. And if you can prove your innocence to me beyond a reasonable doubt, you’ll be free to take your son and go home this evening.”

“Innocence in what?”

“Your wife’s treason, of course.” The look the agent was giving Simon now was almost pitying. “You’d be surprised how often we see it, rebels with unwitting spouses. But the Order doesn’t punish innocent citizens for the crimes of their family members. We’re very fair-minded. If you’ll just-”

“No, no, there must be some mistake,” Simon interrupted. “Alice isn’t… I mean, it’s impossible. I would know if my wife was in the Resistance.”

The agent’s eyebrows picked up again. “I certainly hope you didn’t know, Mr. Aubert, for your son’s sake. I would hate to see him lose both his parents in one day.”

Breathing was becoming difficult, the walls were closing in, was the floor tilting back and forth? “That’s not what I meant, I mean there’s been a mix-up, it’s not my wife you’re after. It can’t be, you can’t execute her, you can’t.”

The agent sighed impatiently. “No, Mr. Aubert, I can’t,” he snapped. “The Order is not in the habit of executing the dead. We find it redundant.” Behind him, Suzanne let out a choked sob and quickly covered her mouth. The agent ignored her. “Mr. Aubert, one hour ago your wife was found transporting a known Resistance terrorist across Paris. The pair attempted to flee the brave officers who intercepted them. Those officers had the choice of either allowing dangerous criminals to run free, or protecting the safety and peace that the Order has so desperately been fighting for since freeing this country of the scourge of vigilantism. They chose to protect the innocent, and your wife and her fellow traitor were shot dead.” The agent squared his shoulders. “Now, I am going to take you into this woman’s office, and you are going to tell me every single thing you can about your wife’s actions over the past few weeks. Where she’s gone, who she’s seen, what she’s done. Every stray, innocuous comment she’s made to you. Together, we are going to figure out who could have recruited her into the Resistance, and how they can be stopped from threatening any more peaceful citizens. You are going to help us put down all of your wife’s dangerous associates, because if you do not then your son will become an orphan today. Am I making myself entirely clear?”

For a moment, Simon simply stared at the agent, unmoving. Then, slowly, he nodded. He followed the man out of the room and down the hall. Simon knew before they reached the office that he would cooperate fully with the people who had murdered his wife.

 

July 7th, 2049

Emma Agreste squinted at the runes inscribed about the metal disc lying on the table in front of her, then triple-checked them against her latest notes. She carefully measured the distance between each of the eleven stones around its edge. She picked up the twelfth stone, held it over the final empty groove, and braced herself.

“Ready?” her uncle called from his living room.

“Ready!” she called back.

“Three… two… one!”

Emma dropped the stone in place. The twelve stones briefly flickered in unison, then glowed bright blue. Tendrils of raw magic began to snake across the metal surface. They slowly grew in intensity, covering more and more of the area. There was a bright flash of light and, quite suddenly, Emma was gazing into the next room over. On the other side of the circle, Jonathan grinned down at her. “Ready?” Emma nodded. Jonathan held up a coin, not much smaller than the disc. He positioned it right at the center and let go. Gravity took hold, and it fell towards Emma. It flew up from the table, slowing down once it crossed to Emma’s side and gravity began acting upon it in the opposite direction. As it reached its zenith, Emma snatched it out of the air. The metal was cool in her hands, and solid.

Emma held her breath, waiting for the coin to disintegrate like the last dozen coins in the last dozen trials had. When it stubbornly refused to cease existing, she let out a triumphant laugh. “It worked!”

Jonathan quickly crossed the living room and burst into the small library. “Seriously?” Emma held up the coin triumphantly and Jonathan stared at it in disbelief for a moment. “Holy shit,” he muttered. “We actually did it.”

Emma’s grin widened. “It was mostly you.”

Jonathan shook his head. “I never would have even thought of fusing runic and quantic magics if it hadn’t been for you, Emma. Stable teleportation portals. Holy shit.”

“Does this mean I’m not getting back the use of our coffee table?” Emma heard a voice ask from through the portal. A soft, high-pitched meow followed.

Jonathan leaned over the table to scowl at his husband through the portal. “Ferd, keep Prospero away from this thing, we still have no idea if it’s safe for organic matter or not.”

“Isn’t it based on Emma’s powers?” The voice through the portal grew weaker as Ferd walked away from it in order to talk to them in person. He appeared at the doorway, a small silver tabby kitten clinging to his shoulder. “She’s organic matter, and she teleports all the time.”

“She’s also got Rajji,” Jonathan said, nodding his head towards the blue kwami currently napping on a nearby dusty tome. “Without a powerful conscious entity as a guide, teleportation becomes roughly a million times more dangerous. It’s why we gave up on replicating her powers directly and decided to stick to stationary portals instead. Anyway, I want to run more tests with the coins first, this is the first one that hasn’t immediately evaporated into nothingness.” Jonathan looked back at the portal on the table. “If we can replicate this, it’ll be the biggest breakthrough in magic in the last fifty years, easy. We’re making the history books for this one, kid.”

Ferd snorted. “You two already feature pretty prominently in several history books. I should know, I write them.” He leaned over and kissed his husband’s cheek.

Prospero took advantage of the opportunity and leapt from Ferd’s shoulder to Jonathan’s. Jonathan winced at the kitten’s sharp claws, but laughed. “Yeah, well, I don’t know about Emma,” he said scratching behind Prospero’s ears, “but I’ll take any additional entries that tip the scales towards the ‘good’ side of ‘highly morally ambiguous’.”

“Yeah, I’ll take it, too,” Emma said, her smile fading.

Jonathan looked at Emma and narrowed his eyes. “What nerve did I just hit?” he asked, with the infuriating certainty that Emma had grown used to from the empaths in her life.

Emma shrugged. “Nothing, it’s just, uh, you guys saw how they finally found Thornton in Argentina last month, right?” They both nodded. “Yeah, well, it’ll probably be on the news tonight, but they set a date for his war crimes tribunal. Dani and Louis and I just got key witness summons.”

Ferd sighed. “Oh, Emma, I’m sorry. You three shouldn’t have to go through that again.”

“It’s fine,” Emma muttered. “All the other major cities got closure. Paris deserves it, too. Who knows, maybe we’ll all actually feel better when it’s finally over.”

Jonathan frowned, and for a moment Emma was sure he’d say something, but then it passed. “Well, those government magicians should be happy,” he said. “They seemed pretty impatient for us to figure out how to fuse these magics safely. Who knows, by this time next year there could be safe transports set up all over the globe, connecting every corner of the world.”

An international network of safe portals. If something like that had existed five years ago, the giant barrier that the Order had drawn over all of western Europe would have been useless. The occupation would have been over before it even began. Emma smiled at the thought. However she felt about the part she’d played in ending the occupation, at least she was making sure nothing like it could ever happen again.

“Oh!” Jonathan pulled Prospero off his shirt and hastily handed him to Emma. “Hang on, I almost forgot-” Her uncle hurried out of the room. Emma pet the kitten absentmindedly as she waited for her uncle to return.

“So,” Ferd said, smiling at Emma. “Am I going to be seeing you in my Intro to Modern History class this fall?”

Prospero began purring loudly. “I thought you were retiring after this year,” Emma said

“Eh,” Ferd waved his hand dismissively. “After a bunch of magical fascists force you into retirement once, the thought of doing it willingly loses its appeal. Besides, my celebrity status is finally waning. I might actually get real work done this year.”

“Lucky,” Emma said. “I still can’t walk three blocks without someone-” she stopped talking as Jonathan reappeared at the door, wrapped present in hand.

“Here,” he said, handing it over. “My graduation present to you.”

“Our graduation present,” Ferd corrected as Emma gently placed Prospero on the floor and began unwrapping the gift.

“What? You didn’t even know I was giving her that.”

“So? What was the point of getting married if I can’t claim half-credit on all presents you get people?”

“True love?” Jonathan suggested dryly.

Ferd scoffed. “Nerd.”

“Oh, wow,” Emma said, examining the large encyclopedia of magic. “This is gorgeous.” She ran a finger over the gold tooled leather cover, and noticed the fraying spine. “Is it out of print?”

“No, it’s just over fifty years old,” Jonathan said. “That’s the first book on magic I ever bought, right after Adele told me about her Miraculous.”

Emma flipped through the pages. The margins were filled with Jonathan’s cramped handwriting. “This could be in a museum,” she whispered reverently.

Jonathan smiled. “I’d rather see it go to someone who could get some use out of it,” he said. “I hope it serves you as well as it served me.”

Emma nodded gently. “Thank you.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Knock much?” Dani asked, not looking up from her latest art project as Louis burst into the girls’ bedroom.

“Is this about my breakthrough with the portals?” Emma asked, putting her book aside and sitting up defensively. “Because we’re being really careful with testing, we’re not gonna-”

“No,” Louis interrupted, annoyed, “this isn’t anything to do with-but remind me to talk to you about that later, because you’re in extremely uncharted waters and quantic magic isn’t meant to-”

“What do you want, Louis?” Dani asked. She put her watercolor brush down and turned to sit backwards in her chair.

Scowling, Louis threw a lifestyle magazine down on Emma’s bed. “Did you guys see the interview Mom did?”

Emma picked up the magazine and flipped to the article. “I skimmed it, but it was pretty boring. ‘Latest generation of Paris’ superfamily graduates from lycée’, blah blah blah. Seemed like a pretty standard human interest piece.” Emma squinted at the article’s picture of the three generations of Agreste superheroes, from the day she’d graduated, and sighed. “I look ridiculous in this, I’m a head shorter than both of you. It’s bad enough being shorter than you, Louis, but Dani and I are supposed to be identical.”

“It’s not my fault you won’t get with the program and start wearing heels,” Dani said.

“Who cares about the picture?” Louis jabbed a finger at the final paragraph. “Mom told them I was taking a gap year.”

Dani sighed. “Louis-”

“How many times do I have to tell her I’m done with school before she actually listens?”

“Maybe she just wanted to simplify it,”  Emma said diplomatically. “‘Gap year’ is easier to understand than ‘traditional Guardian circumnavigation of the globe’ and, no offense, on paper it kind of looks the same.”

“It’s not the same at all, and I’m not going to university when I get back. I’m renting a studio and doing energy therapy. Guardians are healers.”

“You know,” Emma said, “people do study magical healing at the university level. You could-”

“I’m not having this argument again,” Louis snapped. He sat down on Dani’s bed. “University’s fine for other people, people like you, but I can’t spend another minute of my life in a classroom. I can’t _learn_ in schools, I can’t focus, I need to be out in the real world. That’s the only way I’m going to get better as the Guardian. Why can’t Mom accept that?”

“Do you actually want to know,” Dani asked calmly, dangling her arm over the back of her chair, “or do you just want to vent?”

Louis let out a heavy sigh and fell backwards into the pile of pillows and stuffed animals at the head of Dani’s bed. “Enlighten me.”

“Mom’s worried about you making being the Guardian your entire life. Mom got through thirty years of being a superhero by aggressively compartmentalizing, keeping Marinette Dupain-Cheng separate from Ladybug, and that worked for her. She’s worried about you losing Louis Agreste to Terrapin.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “Being the Guardian is different from being Ladybug. And things are different now. People know who we are. Separate identities don’t get to be a thing for us like they were for her.”

Dani shrugged. “Mom feels guilty that we lost our normal lives so early. She wants us to be able to get some of that back.”

“I never had a normal life,” Louis said. “You two did, but I didn’t. I’ve known my whole life that Mom and Dad were different, I’ve known my whole life that _I_ was different, and I couldn’t talk about it with anyone or say anything for fourteen years. Do you have any idea what a relief it is to be able to live openly as the Guardian?”

“Yes, actually,” Dani said. “I’m picking up on it very clearly, your relief. Just like I pick up on your anger and Mom’s frustration every time you get into a fight with her about it, and since it’s not exactly fun for me I’d appreciate it if you’d hold back this time.”

“So, what?” Louis asked, annoyed. “I just ignore it?”

Dani picked her brush up and turned back around to her painting. “Talk to Dad.”

Emma frowned. “Dad? What’s Dad got to do with it?”

“Dad,” Dani said slowly, applying careful brushstrokes to her work, “doesn’t like it when Mom gets too controlling or dismissive. It reminds him of Grandfather. He’ll talk to her. And he’ll do it without me getting an empathy migraine.”

Louis took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay, fine,” he said. “I won’t say anything.”

Dani nodded. A second later she looked up at Emma. “What?”

“Nothing,” Emma said defensively. “It’s just weird when you lay it all out like that, that’s all.”

Dani smirked. “Want me to do you next?”

Emma rolled her eyes. “Pass.”

 

* * *

 

Emma checked the time on her phone for the third time in as many minutes, sighed, and leaned against the bus stop sign. Henri was running late. This was perfectly normal for him, but Emma found the longer she lived with the ability to be anywhere she wanted in an instant, the harder it was to simply sit around waiting. Well, a few extra minutes of time to herself might be a good thing, there were some sections of the encyclopedia her uncle had given her that Emma wanted to-

“Hera!”

Emma didn’t have time to turn towards the voice before a pair of arms grasped her from behind. It took every inch of self-control she had to not twist out of the embrace and put her assailant in some kind of head-lock. “Um…”

“-gotmysonoutofthecityfivedaysbefore-”

Emma managed to twist herself around while still locked in the stranger’s embrace, although once she did so she wasn’t sure it was an improvement. The woman’s grip only tightened, and now she was burying her face in Emma’s shoulder, half-crying.

“-expectingmyfirstgrandchildinAugustitneverwouldhavebeenpossibleifyouhadn’t-”

Emma was only catching every third word or so, but she got the general gist. She patted the woman’s shoulder awkwardly. “Yeah, that’s… I mean…”

“-namingherHeraifit’sagirlofcourse-”

Over the woman’s shoulder, Emma saw the bus pull up. She prayed silently for a moment, then breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Henri step down onto the sidewalk. _Help me_ , Emma mouthed at him as he walked over.

“Oh, um-Emma! Hey… hey, Emma, um-” Abandoning tact, Henri grabbed Emma’s hand and forcefully pulled her away from the woman. “We’re, uh, we’re gonna be late to… um. That thing. The thing, that we’re going to. Late. To the thing.”

“Right, thanks.” Emma let Henri pull her away, but turned back to the woman as she went. “Congrats on the baby!” she called over her shoulder. She gave the woman a short wave before quickly turning a corner.

“I thought people were finally chilling out?” Henri said once they were safely out of earshot.

Emma shrugged. “They were, but then there was all that stuff about Thornton in the news. I guess it’s just bringing everything back for a lot of people.”

“Guess so,” Henri said. He glanced at Emma. “You okay?”

Emma nodded. “Yeah, I just… am I horrible for hating it when they cry?”

Henri squeezed her hand. “No, of course not. I bet I’d be terrible at it. You saw me just now, I couldn’t even think of a better excuse than ‘a thing’.”

Emma snorted. “Right, that thing we’re gonna be late for. Where are we going, anyway?”

“Cute outdoor cafe that opened a few weeks ago downtown. My moms were raving about it, and I guess we only have another week or so before the tourists all find it.”

“Ah.”

Henri looked at Emma. “You’re sure you’re okay? Is there anything you want to talk about?”

“Nope,” Emma said. “I don’t want to talk about anything.”

“Okay,” Henri said. “You wanna bail on the whole ‘being out in public’ plan, go back to my place, watch Star Trek for a few hours and have dinner with my family?”

Emma wasn’t quite able to refrain from sighing in relief. “Yeah,” she said. “That sounds perfect.”

 

* * *

 

“So is this basically what you and your uncle invented?” Henri asked, four episodes in. “A transporter?”

Emma pulled her legs up on the couch and curled against Henri. “No,” she said. “It’s more like… like making a shortcut between where you are and where you want to be. You don't disappear and reappear, you just go through the shortcut. Well, a few quarters disappeared early on, but we’re pretty sure they’re still _somewhere_. Probably on Earth, even.”

“How are they not dead?” Henri’s younger sister Violet, who was currently hanging upside-down over the back of a nearby armchair, asked. “If they’re getting broken into a million tiny pieces and rebuilt later, isn’t that thing just killing them and remaking a new version of them?”

“Yeah, I’ve never been clear on that,” Emma said, shrugging.

“It preserves their energy signature,” Henri said defensively.

“No, but look, Vi’s right,” Emma said, “because they wound up with two of the same guy in that one episode, which suggests that the whole ‘breaking down’ step isn’t necessary to begin with. If they make a new person first and _then_ break down the first person, that’s obviously murder. Just because they’ve timed it just right in order to create the illusion of continuity-”

“Emma!” Rose Lavillant, still wearing her scrubs from her shift at the hospital, poked her head into her family’s living room. “I didn’t know you were here, I thought Henri was taking you out.”

“Nah, we decided to stay in,” Henri said casually. Emma felt a quick flash of gratitude that he didn’t elaborate. “Is that okay?”

“Of course! I’ll have to make a little extra dinner, but that’s fine.”

“Can I help?” Emma asked. She started to get up from the couch.

“No, no, no, you three keep watching… what is this? Is this the show with those cute little fuzzy monsters? Tribbles?”

“Yeah,” Violet said, at the same time her brother said, “No.” Violet rolled her eyes. “What?” Henri said. “It’s a completely different series set two hundred years after the one Mama’s talking about.”

“Well, whatever it is, you kids watch it and I’ll let you know when-”

Rose was cut off by the sudden ring of a familiar alarm. Rose, Violet and Henri all immediately looked at Emma. Over the past four years, that alarm had gone off enough times while Emma was over that they all knew what it meant.

“Shoot,” Emma muttered. “Guess I’m not staying for dinner after all. Um, Ms. Lavillant, could I-”

“Down the hall, dear, of course. Be safe.”

Emma nodded, then grabbed her backpack. As she bent down, Henri leaned over and gave her cheek a quick kiss. “Call me when you’re back home?”

“Of course.” Emma slung her backpack over her shoulder and hurried out of the room, down the hall, and into the bathroom. There wasn’t a secret identity to protect, of course, but Emma, unlike her brother, prefered to keep the two halves of her life as separate as possible. Besides, the kwami didn’t like to be seen by civilians.

Emma checked the message that had come through as Rajji emerged from her backpack to hover over her shoulder. It was short: _Need backup ASAP_. Emma took a deep breath. “Rajji, feathers out!”

 

* * *

 

Emma hadn’t really appreciated, until she’d started trying to replicate her powers from scratch, how much easier Rajji made teleporting. Emma never had to worry about teleporting into the middle of a wall, or in front of a moving bus. She didn’t even need to know exactly where she was going, if she needed to get to the side of one of her fellow Miraculous holders quickly. She closed her eyes and willed herself to-

-downtown Paris. Not too far off from where Henri had been planning to take her, if Emma wasn’t mistaken. At first the chaos seemed like normal crowds and rush-hour traffic at the height of tourist season, but then she saw Honey in the middle of the street, holding with all her might onto the string of her trompo. The other end was currently wrapped around the front of a bus, and the back of that bus was…

Emma blinked, then squinted. The bus just seemed to stop existing about halfway back. Confused, Emma teleported to Honey’s side. “What’s-”

“Get everyone off the bus,” Honey interrupted through gritted teeth. The bus pulled away from her a few inches. Honey took a heavy breath and yanked it back towards her. People were already getting off as fast as possible, but Emma had evacuated enough public transport to know there’d be people still onboard. She teleported inside and quickly scanned the rows of seats.

The good news was, the entire bus existed after all. The view out the windows, however, changed dramatically about halfway to the back. The streets of Paris disappeared, and in their place was something angry and bright and burning hot.

 _Think about that later_ , Emma told herself impatiently. She grabbed the shoulder of an elderly woman struggling to get up and quickly teleported her safely to the sidewalk behind Honey. Back again to get two kids crouched in their seats, just barely old enough to be riding the bus alone. Once more for the confused tourist at the back, and one final trip to make sure she’d gotten everybody. The temperature onboard had risen dramatically in just those few seconds, and Emma had to wipe the sweat out of her eyes before she was sure she’d rescued everybody.

“It’s clear,” she reported, appearing once more at Honey’s side.

“Sure?”

“Yeah.” With a final grunt, Honey yanked her trompo back. It unwound itself from the bus, and the bus quickly fell back into not-Paris. As the strange vortex closed, Emma could have sworn she caught a glimpse of the bus being engulfed in lava.

“What,” Honey was still breathing heavily, and leaning forward, her hands on her knees, “was that?”

“Um.” Emma’s mouth felt dry. “It looked a lot like a portal.”

“A portal,” Honey repeated.

“Yeah. To a volcano, maybe? I’m not sure.”

Honey frowned and straightened. “Dani said you and your uncle just had some kind of breakthrough on making portals?”

“Yeah,” Emma said, her stomach sinking.

“That seems like a pretty big fucking coincidence, Emma.”

“I know.” Emma looked at Honey. “What happened before I got here?”

“I got an emergency call from the DGSI,” Honey said. “Someone with superpowers had gone rogue, they told me.”

“A _person_ caused that?”

“I think so.” Honey crossed her arms. “Once Dani gets here, she can scan for-” A loud scream cut Honey off. She sighed impatiently. “It’s never easy, is it?” She grabbed Emma’s hand, and Emma transported them both in the direction of the scream. “Everyone clear the area!” Honey shouted in a loud, authoritative voice. The people of the city were used to Honey, and immediately the square began to empty. There was another scream, this time only a meter away. Emma grabbed the woman out of the portal that had opened in the sidewalk, and like the last one it began to close.

“Th-th-thank you,” the woman said before quickly hurrying off. She was soaking wet from the waist down, and shivering like a leaf.

Emma frowned. “What the hell-”

“Stay back!”

Emma and Honey both turned towards the voice. “Says who?” Honey shouted back, annoyed.

“I don’t want to hurt you!” Enough people had finally cleared that Emma could get a good look at the man shouting at them. He was older, maybe late thirties, and he would have seemed perfectly in place if not for the desperate, wild look in his eyes. “Just stay away!”

“Stop making portals and talk to us!” Emma yelled. “I’m sure we can figure out-”

“I can’t! I can’t control it, and I have to get him back!”

“Jesus,” Honey muttered under her breath.

“Okay,” Emma called back, trying to sound calm. “If you come back with us, we can help-”

“No! You don’t understand, they want to stop it, they won’t let me…” The man let out a frustrated cry, then waved a hand at Emma and Honey.

Instantly, the ground beneath their feet vanished. Honey had mastered her powers of flight years ago, and she immediately began hovering in place. Emma, on the other hand, fell right through and landed hard on a sidewalk. The portal vanished just as she looked back up at it. Emma looked around.

London. Not a very recognizable part of it, but Emma had spent enough time liberating the city that she knew most of it by heart. Scowling, she teleported back to where she’d just been.

“Okay, listen,” Emma said, annoyed, “obviously that parlor trick isn’t going to work on me.” This was a bit of a bluff. If this man could open portals to active volcanos, there was a very good chance he could teleport Emma outside of her standard radius. If, heaven forbid, he could transport her to the other side of the world, it would at best take her most of the day to get back. Emma was hoping he didn’t realize that. “I want to be on your side, but-” The ground beneath Emma’s feet disappeared again, but this time Emma was expecting it. She vanished before she had time to fall, and reappeared next to the man, her hand closed around-

-nothing. Before she could grab him, he’d disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the square. “Stay back!” he repeated desperately.

Emma let out an annoyed huff, then reappeared again next to Honey. “I can’t touch him, he teleports as fast as I do,” she reported, speaking under her breath so the man couldn’t hear. He was still shouting at them to leave him alone, but both heroes ignored him. “I don’t think we can wait for Dani or Louis, and this is escalating fast. Think you can knock him out?”

“Easy.” Still hovering in place, Honey pinched the fingers of each of her hands together. A dart appeared in each one, and with perfect accuracy Honey sent them flying straight towards the man.

Once again, the man waved his hand. Emma braced herself, but the ground stayed where it was. She felt a pinch at the back of her neck.

Honey landed back on the ground with a thud. Their mistake was immediately obvious. _You’re supposed to be the smart one_ , Emma thought to herself, annoyed, before everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

A wave of red magic swept over the city, and Emma’s eyes fluttered open. Squinting, she looked up and saw her mother crouching over her. “Sweetheart? Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Emma muttered, as Ladybug helped her sit up. “Embarrassed. Did you get him?”

Standing right behind Ladybug, with a twin look of concern on his face, was Chat Noir. He shook his head. “No, he was long gone by the time we managed to get here.”

“He could be on the other side of the world by now for all we know.” Emma looked up again to see her brother standing over her, his arms crossed and his expression dark.

“I’ll keep scanning,” Dani said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “If he’s anywhere in Paris, I’ll-”

She was cut off as next to Emma, Honey groaned and started to sit up. Instantly, Louis crouched down next to her. “Don’t move,” he said quickly. “How do you feel?”

“Dumb,” Honey said, as she ignored Louis’ instruction and sat up completely. “Bet I’m the first Bee to get hit with one of her own knockout darts.”

Louis’ eyes flickered to Emma for a moment. “That wasn’t your fault,” he said quickly. “But it’s not good for your energy to interact with your powers like that. It creates an unhealthy feedback loop. I need to do a clearing. Emma.”

Emma blinked. Her thinking was still a bit sluggish, and it took her a moment to realize what her brother was asking. “You want me to take us home?”

“Yes. Now. All my stuff is back there.”

Emma looked around herself properly for the first time since waking up. The chaos she’d fainted amidst had almost entirely vanished. Her mother’s Miraculous cure had banished all the stray portals and righted all the damage they’d caused. The bus she’d last seen falling into a volcano was back on the street, without even a scratch. There was a pack of civilians nearby, an even mix of Parisians and tourists by the look of them, most taking videos with their phones. Emma groaned. “Is there any chance the main news story tonight isn’t ‘Professional Superhero Gets Totally Owned By Rookie Villain, Has To Be Rescued By Parents’?”

“Emma, focus,” Louis snapped.

“Right, sorry.” Emma reached for Honey and Louis. Dani bent down and grabbed Emma’s shoulder, and her parents each placed a hand on her arms. The moment Emma had contact with everyone, they were all back home, Emma and Honey seated on the living room couch, everyone else standing next to them. Sighing, Honey leaned back into the cushions. “Apiinii, stripes off.”

“Don’t get up,” Louis said, as Monique’s transformation washed away in a wave of golden light. Dani narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m gonna go get-I’ve done this before, with Dani’s akumas, it’s-but you shouldn’t move until-”

“Go, go,” Monique said, making an impatient shooing motion at the stuttering Guardian. “I’ll be good, I promise.”

“I’ll get kwami food,” Marinette said, straightening and releasing her transformation as she headed for the kitchen. “And for us humans there might even be some macarons left over from yesterday’s batch, if Tikki didn’t sneak back downstairs and finish them off in the middle of the night.” The teens heard her kwami’s indignant reply, before Marinette turned a corner and disappeared from view.

“Right. Good, that’s good. Um, Emma, can you come help me?” Louis turned away and hurried towards the stairs before Emma could respond.

Frowning, Emma slowly stood and followed her brother. He’d rushed ahead, but she knew she’d find him in his room, which he’d slowly converted over the past few years into the ideal Guardian headquarters. Ancient books lined the shelves, and all manner of magical supplies covered every surface. There was hardly anything that remained of what the room had been before Louis had gotten his Miraculous.

“Why do you need me?” Emma asked as she entered the room. “If this is just a regular energy clearing?” Louis’ head was buried in one of his cabinets, but Emma recognized the items she saw him pulling out one by one. She'd seen him use them to clear their sister’s energy many times, and she knew Louis had never had any difficulty.

“It’s not-” Louis looked up as his bedroom door opened again, and Dani stormed in. “What are you doing up here?” he asked, annoyed. “You should have stayed downstairs with Monique.”

Dani crossed her arms. “Mom and Dad are both down there. And even if they weren’t, Monique doesn’t need a babysitter to sit on a couch.”

Louis frowned. “Who said she did?”

Dani rolled her eyes. “Listen, I’ve been biting my tongue for years now about your feelings for Monique-”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Louis interrupted, his cheeks instantly flushing.

“-because you seemed like you’d mostly figured out how to keep them separate from your job as our Guardian, but you can’t get this upset over minor shit.”

“I’m not upset!”

Dani’s eyebrow shot up. “Seriously? Did you just forget who you’re talking to?”

Louis pressed his lips together and glared. “Fine,” he said. “I’m upset. But it’s not because of… because of whatever you _think_ you might sense in my completely appropriate, platonic, Guardian feelings towards-”’

“Oh, _fuck_ ,” Emma suddenly said. Her siblings turned to her. Emma looked at Louis, her face going pale. “Mom’s Miraculous Cure. That’s what you’re upset about, isn’t it?”

Louis sighed. “Yeah.”

Dani looked back and forth between them. “What’s the problem? It worked perfectly, didn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Emma said miserably. “Yeah, that’s the problem. This is all my fault.” She let out a heavy sigh. “Mom’s Miraculous Cure is for undoing damage caused by other Miraculouses. If it worked on all the crazy portals that guy was making…” Emma shook her head. “I have no idea how, but somehow, they were caused by a Miraculous. _My_ Miraculous. It must be because of the experiments I’ve been doing. Right?”

“It’s not just your fault,” Louis said. “I gave you the go-ahead. I’m the Guardian, I’m the one who’s supposed to put a stop to anything that’s too risky. My job is to protect quantic magic, I should have-”

“Look, I hate to interrupt a good superhero guilt fest,” Dani interrupted impatiently, “but before you two get too far into beating yourselves up, maybe we could go back downstairs and find out what the hell is actually going on first?”

 

* * *

 

“...making a complete _mess_ of everything, tearing holes in reality left and right and just _leaving_ them there, at least Rajji has the common decency to clean up after herself even if she’s-”

“I am not!”

“-the most careless-yes, you absolutely are, you didn’t even wait for me to finish what I was saying, that’s exactly my-”

“Okay, okay,” Emma interrupted, knowing from experience that once Rajji and Apiinii really got going, nothing less than a citywide disaster would stop them. “Rajji, here.” Emma ripped open a bag of nonpareils. Rajji immediately abandoned the argument and dove into the bag gleefully.

Monique sighed, then picked up an apple slice from the tray Marinette had set down before her. Apiinii took it from her and quickly devoured it. Monique ran a finger idly over her kwami’s fuzzy collar, and Apiinii began buzzing softly. “It’s okay, girl,” Monique said. “We’re going to figure it all out and put a stop to it.”

“How did you know about this guy in the first place?” Adrien asked. He was seated next to his wife on the loveseat across from the couch, leaning forward, his usually playful expression now dead serious.

“I got a call from the DGSI,” Monique said. “The agent didn’t give me a name.” Seated next to her, Louis held his lighter up to the bundle of herbs he’d brought downstairs, until it was gently smouldering, then handed it to Monique. She took a deep breath, inhaling the smoke, and a bit of color returned to her face. “Just that someone they were studying, a man with new powers he couldn’t control, had gone rogue.”

“Why?” Dani asked. “If you have powers you can’t control, why would you run from people trying to help you?”

Monique shrugged. “I was more worried about damage control. There wasn’t time to ask questions.”

Marinette looked up at Emma. “Did anyone from the DGSI know about your experiments?”

Emma nodded slowly. “It’s standard magical law,” she said. “Uncle Jonathan and I, we had to register our experimental plans to get safety permits.”

“Detailed plans?”

Emma shrugged. “Detailed enough. They wanted more, they wanted us to work with them through the whole process, they were so excited at having access to quantic magic but I didn’t think-ugh,” she groaned. “They scanned my Miraculous. They said they only checked it for destructive potential. I guess they lied.” Emma sank back down on the couch. “There was so much we abandoned,” she said softly. “We got the permits, but we realized it was still too dangerous. Fusing Rajji’s quantic energy to a person, instead of to a stationary point. They must have…” Emma trailed off.

“You didn’t tell me that,” Louis said. Emma didn’t respond. Dani shot her brother a glare, then sat down next to Emma and put her arm around her sister.

“The guy today,” Monique said. “You recognized him from the DGSI?”

Emma shook her head. “No, I’ve never seen…” Emma paused. “No, that’s wrong,” she said. “I didn’t see him at the DGSI, but I _have_ seen him before, I’m sure of it. I just can’t remember where.”

For a few moments, nobody said anything. Finally, Marinette cleared her throat and stood up. “Well, we’ll find out who he is soon enough,” she said decisively. “We’re going to the DGSI and we’re demanding answers. Now.”

 

* * *

 

There was something intensely satisfying about the look on the magical security agent’s face when an entire family of superheroes suddenly appeared out of thin air in the middle of his office. He sputtered for a moment, and almost fell out of his chair, before composing himself. “How-what-you-what can I, um, that is, how-what is it that you-”

“What you can do for us, Agent” Marinette glanced down at the placard on his desk, “Barre, is tell us everything you’re not telling us about the teleporter you sent my daughter after blindly this afternoon.”

“I… I didn’t-”

“Because whatever you’re not telling us,” Marinette interrupted icily, “seems to be the kind of thing that’s putting my children at risk. And I do not appreciate my children being put at unnecessary risk. They’ve already risked quite enough, are already risking quite enough, without you putting them more at risk by hiding things unnecessarily, don’t you agree?”

Agent Barre cleared his throat. “Madame… Ladybug, I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“He’s lying,” Dani said immediately. She crossed her arms and glared. “Want to try again?”

Barre’s face went a few shades paler. “I’m… I’m not allowed to give you the information you’re asking me for.”

Marinette glanced back at Dani. “Not a lie,” Dani said, maintaining her glare.

Nodding slightly, Marinette turned back to Barre. “Then I think you’d better go find someone who _is_ allowed to give us the information we need, don’t you?”

Barre looked almost grateful. He nodded frantically, then quickly left his office. The five superheroes waited in tense silence. It wasn’t long before another agent appeared, apologized profusely, and quickly ushered them to a meeting room. He disappeared almost as suddenly as he’d appeared, after assuring them the director would be in soon.

With a frustrated sigh, Marinette sat down at the room’s large table. “If this is some kind of runaround tactic, I’m going to-”

“Bugaboo.” Adrien sat down in the chair next to his wife, then gently took her hand and kissed her fingers. “You know how much we all love Mama Bear Marinette, but save some of that fire for when the director actually shows up, okay?”

Marinette pursed her lips, but after a moment the hint of a smile broke through. She nodded. “Of course. I just-”

The door on the other side of the room opened, and an older, official looking man entered carrying an envelope, his face grave. “Ladybug,” he said, nodding towards her. “Chat. I am Director Devaux. If you could all take a seat, I’ll do my best to explain the situation we’re in.”

“The situation you caused,” Marinette corrected, as her children slowly sat down around her.

Devaux sighed. “Yes.”

“This has something to do with the research proposal I submitted last year, doesn’t it?” Emma asked, her voice wavering ever so slightly on the last few words.

“It does.” Devaux pursed his lips. “It was a genius proposal, Miss Agreste. You’ve clearly got an incredibly gifted mind for magical research. The work you’ve done, it surpasses the majority of doctoral theses that I-”

“What did you _do_?” Emma snapped. “I told you guys back then, I said it was too dangerous, that’s why I-I warned you!”

“We took your concerns into account,” Devaux said, “but ultimately, our top experts felt the potential gains outweighed the possible risks.”

“That wasn’t your decision to make! This is _my_ magic, I’m responsible for it, not you, and not whatever poor sucker you tricked into volunteering for this.”

“On the contrary,” Devaux said. “The volunteer was quite eager, and went in fully informed of what he was signing up for.”

Next to Emma, Dani frowned. “That’s true,” she said slowly, “but you still feel guilty. You’re still not telling us something. Who is he?”

Devaux sighed again, then flipped open his folder and slid it across the table. A picture of the man Emma and Monique had faced off against looked up at them. “His name is Simon Aubert,” Devaux said.

Louis squinted at the picture. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

Devaux hesitated. “Possibly you’re remembering his late wife. Alice.”

It took a moment, for Emma’s brain to make the connection. She’d tried so hard to remember all the names, but there were so many, and it had been five years. One moment, the name Alice Aubert meant nothing to her, and the next, it suddenly felt as though the floor had dropped out from under her. Dani looked at her, concerned. “Emma?”

“She was Resistance,” Emma whispered. “She-there wasn’t a trial, there wasn’t any chance for us to… she tried to run.”

One by one, everyone turned to look at Devaux, and he flinched. “That’s right,” he admitted.

“Well, no wonder he volunteered so eagerly,” Marinette said angrily. “He thought he was honoring her, didn’t he? What did you do, give him some speech about how he’d be helping make sure nothing like the Occupation could ever happen again? What kind of person exploits-”

“It is not _exploitation_ , Madame Ladybug, to allow a man to do what he can,” Devaux snapped defensively. “Superheroes are not the only people who sacrificed during that terrible time, and they are not the only people who feel responsible for making sure it never happens again.”

Marinette glared silently at the director, but he held her gaze. It was Adrien who finally broke the tense silence. “So what went wrong?” he asked, almost gently.

Devaux looked at him. “The power, the quantic energy that makes teleportation possible, it was too great. He quickly began to lose control of his abilities. The portals began to appear, and we couldn’t control where they led.”

“A bus fell into a volcano,” Emma said numbly, still trying to wrap her head around everything she was learning.

“Volcanoes were just the start,” Devaux said. “Portals to volcanoes, to the freezing tops of mountains, to the bottom of the ocean, the surface of the moon… and all that would have been manageable. We thought we could figure out how to contain it, even as it grew further and further from our control. And then Aubert ripped a hole in the fabric of reality itself.”

One by one, everyone in the family looked at Louis. Louis’ eyes had gone hard, they’d taken on a look Emma didn’t think she’d ever seen from him before. “What layer of reality did he rip into?” Louis asked quietly.

Devaux shook his head. “It was worse than that,” he said. “A tear to another layer of this reality, we have the means to repair that. This was a tear into another reality entirely.”

Dani narrowed her eyes. “What’s he saying, Louis?”

“Is it still open?” Louis asked, ignoring his sister.

“No,” Devaux said. “But it was the wake-up call we needed. We decided to terminate Aubert’s power, and abandon the project. Somehow, he got wind of our plan and ran.”

“Why?” Adrien asked, frowning. “Why would he want to keep a dangerous power he can’t control?”

Devaux said nothing. Dani fixed her gaze on him. “You don’t blame him for running, you feel guilty, you-” Dani gasped suddenly, covering her mouth in horror. “Someone fell through.”

Once more, everyone looked at Devaux. Slowly, he nodded. “His son. Adam.”

Emma’s stomach twisted up in painful knots. “His son fell through a portal to another reality,” she said slowly, “and you… you were just going to leave him there?”

“To protect the rest of this reality? Yes.” Devaux set his jaw. “I know that’s not how superheroes do things, but sometimes difficult decisions have to be made for the greater good.”

“There’s always another way!” Marinette exclaimed. “You were playing with magic you didn’t even understand, maybe if you’d swallowed your pride and contacted my daughter she could have helped you, but instead you decide to just abandon a _child_?”

“There’s no reason to believe… the portals were always linked to Simon’s mental state, even if he couldn’t control them. There’s a very good chance that the alternate reality he connected with is better than our own. Perhaps one in which his wife never died. Adam might be reunited with his mother now. This new reality could be a dream come true for him.”

“But you don’t know! You can’t just-”

“It doesn’t matter,” Louis interrupted. He’d gone white as a sheet, and his hands were shaking slightly. Dani took one of them and squeezed, but Louis didn’t seem to notice. “It doesn’t matter if Simon’s son is in a literal paradise right now. Cross-reality contamination is so much more dangerous than you realize.” Louis took a deep breath, then another, then another. “Wherever Adam is, we can’t leave him there because as long as he’s there that reality is going to start trying to resonate with this one. The longer he’s there, the worse it’s going to get. Our realities are going to try harder and harder to sync, until finally,” Louis swallowed hard. “Eventually, both realities will shatter.”


	4. Chapter 4

There was a moment of tense silence when the Agrestes rematerialized back in their home. Emma couldn’t quite bring herself to make eye contact with anyone else in her family, but she could feel all four pairs of eyes on her, waiting for her to say something.

“So…” Monique said, finally breaking the silence, “... that bad?”

“Yeah,” Emma muttered.

“It’s going to be fine,” Dani said. “I’m going to use my powers to track Simon down, we’ll explain everything to him-”

“Why would he listen to us?” Emma asked. “Would you, in his position? He thinks we’re working with the DGSI, he thinks we want to take his powers away and abandon his son. Why would he trust us?”

Dani frowned, confused. “We’re not the DGSI, or government at all,” she said. “We’re heroes.”

“Not for Alice, we weren’t.”

“Emma!” Marinette gaped at her daughter, stunned, as both Dani and Louis visibly winced. “You… you just can’t _think_ like that, baby.”

Emma shrugged. “It’s how Simon thinks about it that matters. If he trusted us to be heroes, he wouldn’t have run from me and Monique.”

“Speaking of Monique,” Monique said, “does someone want to tell me what’s going on?”

“The DGSI stole Emma’s research and gave a guy dangerous portal powers he can’t control,” Dani said. “His son fell into an alternate reality, and according to Louis if we don’t get him back, the world ends.”

“Two worlds,” Louis corrected glumly.

“But all we have to do is help Simon reopen the portal, and then we’ll go through and find his son-”

“Not we,” Louis interrupted. “Emma.”

“Excuse me?” Marinette said, narrowing her eyes at her son.

“Louis is right,” Emma said. “This mess is my fault, I should be the one to fix it. It’s not fair for anybody else to risk themselves.”

For a moment, Louis stared at Emma as though she’d grown a second head. “What are you _talking_ about?” he asked incredulously. “Since when is being a superhero about what’s fair? If everybody could go, everybody would go. All that matters is doing everything we can to get Adam back. But travelling through a portal to another reality, that’s incredibly dangerous teleportation. Rajji should be able to safely navigate you through it, but taking anybody else is way too risky.”

“I’m not letting Emma go alone, Louis, I’ll take whatever risk-”

“If you get lost in that portal, you’ll wind up in a completely random reality,” Louis told his mother. “At least with Adam, we have an idea of how to get back to him. If we lose you, or anybody else, we’ll have no way of getting you back, and two worlds unravel. The only way to get Adam without losing anybody else is for Emma to follow Simon by herself.” Louis looked at Emma. “I’m sorry.”

“But-”

“Marinette.” Adrien wrapped an arm around his wife’s tense shoulders. “Emma is a smart, capable hero. She can do this.”

“Right,” Emma said, with far more certainty than she felt. “I can.”

 

* * *

 

Thirty-six hours later, Emma got a text from her uncle. _Come over. Have stuff_. Emma read the text a few times, confused. She’d told Uncle Jonathan what had happened, of course, but he hadn’t said much other than that Emma shouldn’t blame herself, a statement that had felt more obligatory than sincere to Emma. Emma hadn’t expected to hear from him again before Dani tracked Simon down.

Emma appeared inside of Jonathan’s living room a few seconds later. “What’s…” she trailed off, then silently dropped her transformation. The apartment was a mess, books and notes and signs of magic strewn everywhere. Tamara, a fat tortoiseshell cat, was sleeping on one pile, and about a meter away Prospero was playfully batting around a small, clear marble.

“Emma?” Emma heard her uncle calling from his study. She hurried across the room towards his voice. Jonathan looked up from his desk. He smiled up at Emma as she entered the room, but Emma hadn’t seen him look so sleep deprived since the most desperate days of the Occupation. “Good, you’re here,” he said. “I’ve been working on a few things for your trip. Here.” He picked up a thick stack of notes and handed it over.

“What’s-”

“Everything I’ve been able to put together about how Simon’s powers must be working,” Jonathan said. “If where you’re going has another me, he should be able to use those to get up to speed quickly.”

“Oh. Um, thanks.” Emma shrugged her backpack off and quickly packed the papers inside. “You didn’t have to-”

“Here, I also put this together,” Jonathan interrupted. “Well, Ferd did it, but you know what I mean.” Jonathan shoved something into Emma’s hand. “Dani’s still having trouble finding Simon, right?”

“Yeah, but what does that have to do with,” Emma slowly lifted the object she’d been given, “the biggest goddamn diamond I’ve ever seen in my life?”

Jonathan rolled his eyes. “Please, your grandmother has diamond necklaces twice that size.”

“Still, it’s not exactly conspicuous. What is it?”

“It’ll detect a flare-up of Rajji’s brand of quantic energy,” Jonathan said. “If Simon creates a portal to his son’s dimension before you find him, that thing will glow bright blue.”

“Oh good, because it wasn’t drawing the eye enough as it was.”

Jonathan sighed. “Shockingly,” he said dryly, “Ferd and I don’t have a lot of jewelry in the apartment. So it was either my dead mother’s heirloom necklace or Tamara’s cat collar.”

“Okay, fine,” Emma said, fastening the necklace around her neck, “I guess I’d prefer this.”

“Good,” Jonathan said, “because I had to use the cat collar for something else.” He pulled a collar out of his pockets and handed it over. “That should mute Simon’s powers. I know you need him to open the portal over, but once you’re there, have him put it on his wrist and it should keep him from spontaneously generating random portals everywhere you go.”

Emma nodded. “Got it.”

“And just in case some portals get away from you,” Jonathan grabbed a small bag of marbles off his desk and handed it over, “I had Ferd enchant those to collapse any pesky portals. Just pinch one to activate it and toss it through.”

“Thanks.” Emma packed the collar and marbles in her backpack with Jonathan’s notes, head slightly reeling. “This is really helpful.”

Jonathan frowned. “I don’t like superheroes in this family going off on solo missions,” he said darkly. “The least I can do is prepare what I can for you before you go. Do you have any idea what the world you’re going to is like?”

“Um,” Emma zipped her bag up and slung it back over her shoulder, “the DGSI is pretty sure Simon was thinking about his wife when he accidentally created the portal. He was watching a news report about Thornton’s arrest. So if we’re lucky, Adam’s in an alternate 2044 where the Order never took over and everything’s fine. My parents will be in Paris, and they’ll be able to help me find Adam without any real trouble.”

“And if you’re not lucky,” Jonathan said, “it’s a 2044 where the Order’s taken over just like they did here, but for whatever reason Alice wasn’t stopped by a guard at a checkpoint the day she died. You could be going to a dangerous world where your superpowers are a crime punishable by death.”

Emma shrugged. “I survived it once already, I can do it again. And either way, Simon and I won’t be there long.”

Jonathan hesitated. “You’re sure this guy will listen to reason? That once you explain everything he’ll cooperate?”

Emma frowned. “Why wouldn’t he?”

Jonathan shrugged. “Forty years ago, if I’d found myself in an alternate reality where your grandmother never disappeared, I’m not so sure I’d be eager to come back to this one. Simon might see this as an opportunity.”

“But he can’t stay there, or he’ll die. His son will die, the other Alice will die. Everyone will die.”

“Simon isn’t going to want to believe that, and we already know he might not trust you.” Jonathan took a deep breath. “Emma… the reason our realities will both break, it’s because a person’s energy is incompatible with alternate realities, right?”

Emma nodded. “Louis said we don’t have to worry about, like, bringing every physical thing back. If Adam lost his jacket or whatever it’s fine. It’s just people that matter. Objects don’t have energy signatures.”

“Neither do corpses,” Jonathan said.

It took Emma a few seconds to understand her uncle’s meaning. Her face went pale. “I… I can’t…”

“I’m not saying you should,” Jonathan said quickly. “But, well, you should know what all your options are. Just in case.”

Emma shook her head. “Dani’s going to find Simon and we’re going to explain everything to him and he’ll cooperate,” she insisted. “We’re going to get Adam and we’ll all come back.”

Jonathan sighed. “Of course.”

 

* * *

 

That evening, there was a soft knock at Emma’s open bedroom door. “Emma?” Her father poked his head in.

“Dad!” Emma looked up from packing. “Did Dani-”

“Nothing yet,” Adrien said quickly. “I just wanted to check in. How are you?”

“Almost done,” Emma said, gesturing to her backpack. “I should be able to bring a backpack with me if I’m wearing it when I transform. I can’t bring everything I might need but I’ve got all the stuff Uncle Jonathan gave me, plus my old Order-issued ID card just in case, and-”

“I meant, how are you?” Adrien interrupted. “Are you doing okay?”

“Oh. Um. Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” Adrien walked over to Emma and sat down on the edge of her bed. “It’s okay if you aren’t.”

“Uh.” Emma sat down next to her father. “Well, no, it isn’t,” she said. “I have to do this. I can be not okay once it’s done.”

“Emma.” Adrien put a hand on her shoulder. “I know all of this is sudden and scary, but if you want, we can talk about it. You can always talk to me about anything. You know that, right?”

Emma nodded. “Thanks, really, but… honestly, Dad, talking is the last thing I want to do.”

“Okay,” Adrien said gently. “That’s okay, too. Can I help you pack?”

“Yeah,” Emma said, trying not to sound as relieved as she felt. “Yeah, that would be nice.”

Adrien smiled. “Oh, before I forget, I got you something for your trip.” He handed Emma a plastic shopping bag. “It’s not much, but…” Emma pulled a tee shirt out of the bag and unfolded it. There was a cartoon drawing of a chemistry test tube, and the caption _If you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the precipitate_. “You don’t have that one already, right?”

Emma swallowed hard and blinked back a few tears. “No,” she whispered. “No, I love it.”

“Really?”

Emma nodded, then threw her arms around Adrien and hugged him tightly. “Thanks, Dad.”

 

* * *

 

About an hour past midnight, there was a soft knock at Emma and Dani’s door. “You guys awake?” Louis whispered through the door.

“Yeah.” Louis came in. “Can’t sleep?” Emma asked.

“You know me,” Louis said. “What’s your excuse?”

Emma nodded across the room, towards a transformed Dani seated cross legged on her bed. “Dani’s trying to find Simon again.”

Louis sighed. “If she hasn’t been able to find him yet, I don’t think-”

“I’d have an easier time if you two weren’t talking,” Dani snapped, her eyes still closed. She let out a frustrated groan. “Simon’s emotional signature must be insane after everything he’s been through. Why can’t I find it?”

“Your powers are for finding Champions,” Louis said. “Simon has quantic magic now, and Miraculous users don’t get to be Champions. It would be too imbalanced.”

“That’s a dumb rule. My powers are good for a lot more than just finding Champions.”

“I don’t make the rules, Dani.” Louis flopped down on the foot of Emma’s bed and looked at her. “I have something for you.”

“Jeez, everyone’s giving me stuff today, it’s like I’ve got a birthday all to myself for once.” Emma took the pouch her brother handed her and put it into her backpack, which she’d left right next to her bed just in case. “What is it?”

“The trip through the portal is going to be rough,” Louis said. “Those herbs should help with transdimensional sickness.”

“So what, I eat a couple of leaves when I get there?”

“Pretty much,” Louis said. “They should be enough to get you to alternate-me. He can do a more thorough healing.”

“Thanks.”

“Sure.” Louis looked around his sisters’ room. “Is it weird that sometimes I miss when all three of us shared one room?”

“You mean during the Occupation?” Emma asked. “Yes, Louis, missing the Occupation is weird.”

Louis kicked his sister through the covers. “You know what I mean.”

“Emma misses it, too,” Dani said matter-of-factly.

“Nobody likes a tattle-tale, Dani,” Emma said. Dani opened her eyes and grinned smugly. “Fine, yes, I miss having you around sometimes.”

Louis gave Emma a half-smile. “Thanks.” He sighed. “God, I really thought we’d get in a few decades before I had to start sending you two off where I couldn’t follow.”

“It’s not your fault,” Emma said.

“It’s not your fault either, you dummy,” Dani said, rolling her eyes.

“I didn’t say it was.”

“You didn’t have to _say_ anything,” Dani said. “I thought you were the one other superhero in this family that knew better than to beat herself up over every single little thing.”

“The end of the world isn’t exactly little.” Dani raised an eyebrow. “Fine, fine, I’ll try not to beat myself up.” Emma expected some display of gratitude from her sister, however small, but instead Dani merely stared at her, stunned. “What?”

“Um…” Dani pointed at Emma’s chest.

Emma looked down to see the necklace she’d gotten earlier, now glowing blue. Her stomach immediately twisted itself in knots. “Oh.” She took a deep breath and shoved all her apprehension down, then grabbed her bag and quickly slung it over her shoulder. “Rajji, feathers out!” By the time her transformation took hold, both of Emma’s siblings had grabbed a hand. Emma took another breath and tried to teleport to wherever Simon was. “I… I don’t…” her voice faltered.

“You can do it,” Louis said steadily. “Simon must have used a ton of quantic magic just now. Rajji will be able to guide you to him. It’s the same as teleporting to one of us when you don’t know where we are.”

Emma nodded, then closed her eyes and concentrated. She focused on how it felt to teleport to the side of another Miraculous holder, to take that jump blindly and trust she’d arrive at the side of an ally. She opened her eyes-

-in the middle of an abandoned city park. Emma didn’t recognize it. In the dark, it could have been one of dozens of small parks in Paris. She frowned. “Where’s-”

“Emma.” Dani pointed behind them, and Emma turned to see a giant portal. Unlike the others, Emma couldn’t see through it to the other side. It was a swirling, angry black mess.

“Shit,” Emma muttered. “He went through already.”

“Go,” Louis said. “Before it collapses. You’ll find him on the other side.” Emma wished her brother sounded more certain.

Dani squeezed Emma’s shoulder. “You’ve got this,” she said. Nodding gratefully, Emma teleported over to the very edge of the portal. It pulled at her, drew at every inch of her, and before she had a moment to second-guess herself, Emma jumped through.

 

* * *

 

“You alright, miss?”

Slowly, Emma’s eyes opened, then immediately shut tightly against the bright sunlight. For a few moments she stayed still, trying to reorient herself.

Every cell in Emma’s body ached. She was sore, she was freezing, she was detransformed, she was…

...lying on her back in the middle of the sidewalk. Not ideal.

“I’m not sure,” Emma managed to say. She felt a large, weathered hand take her own and help her slowly sit up. “Thanks.” Emma finally opened her eyes, and found herself looking up at an older man with kind eyes. Right behind him was a newsstand, loaded up with magazines, Parisian souvenirs, and other conveniences.

“Nasty portal, was it?”

Emma blinked, surprised. “You… saw the portal? Did anyone else fall through?”

“Didn’t see a thing,” the man said easily, “but I heard you land and it’s the obvious explanation, isn’t it? Where were you when you fell through?”

“Um. I was.” Emma shook her head. “Sorry, I’m still a little disoriented.”

“Yeah, my wife’s friend’s daughter, she fell through one two days ago, wound up a good twelve blocks from where she’d been, it knocked her out for the rest of the day. You should take it easy, miss. Sightseeing can wait.”

“Uh,” Emma’s head was still pounding, but she wasn’t sure how to eat one of Louis’ herbs inconspicuously so she decided to just focus on figuring out where, exactly, she’d wound up. “Are there a lot of… portals?”

The man raised an eyebrow and gave Emma a patronizing look. “Young lady, did you not read the travel notices before visiting? They’re very important! Why, I knew a boy back at university who decided to visit Venice on a whim without checking first, damn near lost his hand to a loose Scylla, still has the scar forty years later, of course young people think they’re immortal but-”

“You’re right, thanks,” Emma interrupted quickly. “Um, so what did the notice say exactly?”

“Oh, just portals popping up randomly over the city the past few days. A nuisance to be sure, but if you keep your eyes peeled you should be able to avoid them. The mayor insists it’ll all be cleared up in a few days. Hopefully it doesn’t ruin the rest of your visit.” The man straightened and helped Emma get to her feet.

“Thanks. Um, is it really that obvious that I’m, uh, not from around here?”

The man laughed. “No, your accent’s perfect, don’t worry. But, well,” he gestured to Emma’s tee shirt and shorts, “not too many natives wearing that kind of thing in the middle of October. Where are you from, if you don’t mind my asking?”

 _June_ , Emma thought wryly. “Uh… pretty far away,” she said. She took a deep breath. Everything still hurt, but she could stand, she could think, she could walk. And it occurred to Emma, with a sudden and intense relief, that if this man had assumed she was a tourist visiting on a whim, there was no way the Order was in charge in this dimension. “Thanks for your help,” she said. “I should probably be getting back to my friends.”

“Need a map?” The man gestured back to his newsstand. “Or a metro ticket? Water? You look a bit pale, maybe something to eat?”

Emma shook her head, and immediately regretted the motion. “No, I’m fine.”

“Oh, on the house, I insist.” The man reached over and grabbed a bottle of water. “And here, I’ve got a copy of the notice, been slipping it into the newspapers.”

“Thanks.” Emma took the bottle and leaflet. She hadn’t realized how dry her throat felt, until she started drinking. She glanced over the travel notice. Portals cropping up over the past few days… well, that certainly sounded like Simon, but wherever he’d wound up, he hadn’t been in Paris nearly that long, had he? Unless there was some kind of time dilation going on, but Louis hadn’t said anything about-

“You okay?” the man asked, as Emma abruptly started choking.

Emma coughed for a few seconds. “Fine,” she finally managed to say. She tried not to stare too openly at the date she’d just read on the notice.

October 15, 2015.


	5. Chapter 5

Emma managed to find an abandoned side street to duck down. Her head was still spinning, and the water wasn’t helping. Fingers shaking slightly, she unzipped her backpack and fished out the pouch Louis had given her. The leaves inside were bitter, but after a few seconds of chewing one the world seemed the right way up once more. Her muscles stopped screaming in pain. Everything still ached, but it was at least tolerable. Emma leaned against a brick wall and took a deep breath, then another. “Rajji?” she whispered.

No response.

Gently, Emma reached into the pocket Rajji favored, and sighed in relief when she felt the familiar form. She lifted Rajji out, keeping her hand cupped around her to keep any passersby from seeing anything odd, and leaned in close. “Rajji?” she whispered again.

This time, the kwami opened her eyes halfway and looked up at Emma. “Did we make it?” she asked weakly.

Emma nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, we made it. You did great, Rajji.”

Rajji smiled, then closed her eyes. “Need Louis,” she murmured.

Emma grimaced. “Um. Slight problem. Louis won’t be born for another, like, fifteen years. We’ll have to go to the old Guardian. Where is he?”

“Paris,” Rajji muttered.

“Yes, but _where_ , Rajji, do you remember an address? Or even just the arrondissement? Rajji?” Rajji curled up tighter around herself and her breathing grew steady and deep. Emma bit her lip and willed herself not to cry. She was hurt, her kwami was hurt, and Emma didn’t have the first clue how to find the only person in the city who could heal them.

No. No, that wasn’t quite true. Emma didn’t know how to find the current Guardian, but she knew how to find someone who did. Bracing herself, Emma straightened up and returned Rajji to her pocket. She slung her backpack over her shoulder and exited the alley.

Making her way through a Paris thirty years younger than the one Emma had known was easy, but unsettling. Enough was the same that Emma had little difficulty figuring out where she was and navigating to where she wanted to be. The details, however, felt off from top to bottom. It took Emma a while before she realized what was strangest of all.

Not a single person gave Emma a second glance. For the first time since before the Occupation, Emma might as well have been any other normal girl with a normal life.

Emma dug through her bag and managed to find a couple of Euro coins old enough to safely spend on a bus ticket. After a long and crowded ride she got off a block from her grandfather’s manor.

Emma spent the bus ride trying to think of everything she knew about the year 2015. It wasn’t much, unfortunately. It certainly wasn’t a year anybody in the family liked to talk about. Still, enough of it was part of a now very public record.

It was October, which meant Uncle Jonathan had just started akumatizing people. Her parents had their Miraculouses, but they didn’t know much of anything yet. Her grandmother was still missing, and wouldn’t be found for another year. Her grandfather was still hiding from the world… but he’d know where to find the Guardian. All Emma had to do was convince him she was his granddaughter from an alternate reality and she needed his help.

Sure. Easy.

Emma could see the manor long before she reached it. She’d been in and out of it all her life, even lived there during the Occupation, but somehow it looked even lonelier now than it had during that dark time. She reached the imposing black gate and frowned up at it. Her grandfather changed the code every few months, and she had no idea what it was now. She could ring the bell and… what? Explain to whoever answered that she needed to talk to her grandfather, never mind she was a total stranger and a few years older than his only son? Obviously that wouldn’t work, but what lie would?

Emma had a sudden urge to turn around and leave, to make her way instead to her other grandparents and their warm, inviting bakery. Sure, they didn’t know how to find the Guardian, but if a strange girl showed up on their doorstep and said she was their granddaughter from an alternate future they’d probably just hug her tightly and offer her a cookie. A cookie would be nice right about now.

“Can I help you?”

“Dad!” Emma whirled around, heart racing, and came face-to-face with a fifteen-year-old Adrien Agreste. He frowned and looked at her quizzically. Emma tried to think fast. “Um, uh, Dad, that is, _your_ dad, I need to talk to your dad. Your father, I mean. Gabriel Agreste.”

“I thought you said your dad was out of town?” Emma finally noticed her mother, Uncle Nino and Aunt Alya, all equally young and all standing behind her father. Alya had one hand on her hip, and she looked annoyed. “No offense, Adrien, but getting thrown out of your mansion isn’t exactly fun for us.”

“He is, he’s definitely in Milan,” Adrien assured her. He turned back to Emma. “Who are you?”

“Uh.” Emma’s brain momentarily short-circuited as Marinette gave her a friendly smile. This was so _weird_ , how was Emma supposed to think clearly when everything was so weird? “Fashion blogger.”

“You’re a fashion blogger and you didn’t even know he was in Milan for their show of the year?” Alya asked skeptically.

“Oh, be nice,” Marinette chided, “she’s obviously new. Right?”

Emma nodded at her mother gratefully. “Yeah, uh, I just started last week. So. When will he be back?”

“In a week,” Adrien said.

“Oh.” Shit. “Is there, like, a number I could maybe call and-“ Emma swayed suddenly, and Adrien reached out and steadied her. “Thanks, sorry.”

Adrien frowned at her. “Are you okay?”

“Fine, I just, uh, low blood sugar. Long day.”

“Oh, come inside, I’ll get you something to eat,” Adrien said. “Can you make it inside?”

Emma nodded. “Thanks, I appreciate it.” Maybe she could find a phone number inside, or maybe she could talk to her father after all. He might not know the Guardian yet, but Plagg would.

Adrien opened the gate, and the five of them walked up to the large, imposing doors of the mansion. “You could interview Adrien,” Nino suggested helpfully. “He’s their star model and all.”

“Nino, come on,” Alya said, “you know his dad would kill him if Adrien did an interview while he was away.”

Adrien led them inside, through the foyer and towards the kitchen. Emma looked around and tried not to gawk. The place was even sparser than she was used to. All personal touches were completely gone. She froze in front of the staircase and looked up at the grimmest portrait she’d ever seen in her life.

“I know,” Adrien said, sounding embarrassed, “it’s ridiculous, but he won’t take it down. Come on, the kitchen is this-“ Adrien stopped talking as the sound of footsteps began to echo down the hall.

“Who’s that?” Alya asked.

Adrien groaned. “Oh, God, he didn’t.”

“Didn’t what?”

“Hey, kid.” Emma desperately tried to keep her jaw from hitting the floor as her Uncle Jonathan entered from the hall.

“Hi, Mr. Dumas,” Marinette said cheerfully, because apparently the moment wasn’t surreal enough.

Adrien groaned again. “Did Father seriously call you?” he asked, exasperated. “I’m fifteen! I am way too old for a babysitter, I can be on my own for a week.”

Jonathan sighed. “Look, after all the weird portal stuff happening in the city you’re lucky he left at all. Just pretend I’m not here.”

“I already have a bodyguard!”

“Who has a life outside of working hours,” Jonathan said. “Unlike me, apparently,” he added, rolling his eyes. “How about this, send your girlfriend and your friends home, because I know they’re not allowed to be over on a Thursday, get all your homework done, and for the weekend I will conveniently forget what your curfew is. Sound good?”

Adrien’s shoulders sagged. “Yeah, fine,” he muttered. “Sorry, guys.”

“It’s cool, we’ll hang tomorrow,” Nino said. “Come on, Mari.” Nino took Marinette’s hand as they walked back towards the door. Before Emma had time to process this, Adrien leaned over and kissed Alya’s cheek. “See you tomorrow.”

“Bye, babe.” Alya kissed him back and waved as she left. Emma was still staring, stunned, when Jonathan finally noticed her.

“Who are you?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. “You’re too old to be one of Adrien’s friends.”

“She’s a fashion blogger, she was looking to interview Father, she’s got low blood sugar so I said she could come in and get something to eat.”

“Oh.” Jonathan shrugged. “Well, you’re not getting an interview, but I think there’s some snack bars-”

“Could I interview you instead?” Emma blurted out. Jonathan and Adrien both stared at her. “I mean, uh, that is,” Emma took a deep breath to give herself time to think quickly. Jonathan being here meant no Hawkmoth, which meant no Ladybug or Chat Noir, which meant no Plagg to take her to the Guardian, which meant Jonathan was currently the only person in the city that had even a chance of helping Emma, which meant Emma needed to talk to him alone. “My, uh, editor is interested in an overview of the company, and you were the first investor, right?”

Jonathan’s expression darkened for a moment, then cleared. “Yeah, sure, I’d love to give you an interview,” he said, almost happily. “We can talk in Gabe’s office. Adrien, head on upstairs and get started on that homework.”

Emma followed Jonathan into the office, relief coursing through her veins. Finally, something was going easy, and not a moment too soon if the return of the buzzing in her head meant anything. She took a step into the office, then froze. “Oh,” she breathed, caught off-guard by the life-sized gold painting of her grandmother. She’d seen it a million times, of course, but seeing it here, in this place and this time, was another thing entirely.

“My sister,” Jonathan said softly.

“I know,” Emma said, not thinking.

Jonathan’s expression darkened again. “Yeah, you seem to know quite a lot, don’t you?” he said, turning towards her. “Oh, and by the way, next time you pose as a fashion blogger, try wearing literally anything else.”

“Oh. Um.” Emma looked down at her shapeless tee, jeans, and worn-down sneakers. “Yeah, fair enough. So, I’m actually-”

“I know exactly who you are,” Jonathan interrupted.

“I really doubt that.”

“Still working on getting your degree in journalism, fantasizing about making it big, breaking the story of the decade, and then you read something about the beautiful orphaned heiress who went missing, right?” Jonathan leaned against Gabriel’s desk, and there was a frightening look in his eyes. Emma had seen it a few times during the Occupation, usually after one of her close calls, and she’d always assumed it was some remnant of his days as Hawkmoth. Now Emma was wondering if it wasn’t just something that had always been inside Jonathan. “Rich, gorgeous, beloved by all, married to a famously unpleasant millionaire, vanished without a trace, and it all seems so _obvious_ to you, doesn’t it? I mean, the story practically writes itself. If you could just find the one clue that would crack the whole thing wide open it would make your entire career, wouldn’t it?”

“I’m not-”

“You think you’re the first half-rate paparazzi wannabe with delusions of the Londres to come sniffing around looking for evidence that Gabriel murdered Adele? Well, I’ll tell you this once politely, and if I have to say it again I swear it’ll be in the form of a restraining order: Life isn’t a movie of the week. There’s no story here. There’s just a broken family trying to move on. A family that’s been through more than enough already. A family you’re going to leave alone. Understand?”

Emma stared blankly at Jonathan for a moment, then rolled her eyes. “Jesus, you just monologue at the drop of a hat no matter what reality you’re from, don’t you?”

Jonathan blinked. “Excuse me?”

“You’re just, you, you’re so off,” Emma said, stumbling over her words. Her head was spinning again, and the room suddenly felt ten degrees colder. “I’m not a reporter at all, I’m… I’m…”

“You’re what?”

“Falling.” Emma didn’t quite manage to catch herself, and she was on the floor before her uncle could react.

“Shit.” Jonathan knelt down. “I’m sorry, I just assumed the blood sugar thing was a line to get through the front door. Here,” Jonathan helped her sit up, “you look like you might have a fever, actually, can I get you-”

“Green pouch,” Emma interrupted. “In my backpack.” Jonathan unzipped her bag, found the pouch, and quickly handed it over. Fingers shaking, Emma managed to open it and fish out another leaf. After a few seconds of chewing, the world once again righted itself. She swallowed and took a deep breath. “Thanks. Sorry about that. Like I was saying, I’m…” Emma trailed off as she caught sight of Jonathan’s face, which had gone white. She followed his gaze to the item that had fallen out of her backpack when he’d taken out the pouch.

It was her old ID card.

“You’re…” Jonathan picked up the card and stared at it for a long time. “I’m not sure what part of this is freaking me out the most,” he said calmly. “The last name, I mean, that’s what I saw first, that’s definitely a contender. And then there’s the birth date.” Jonathan looked at Emma. “You know, you don’t look half bad for negative fifteen years old.”

“Uh. Thanks,” Emma said weakly. “Although technically, I’m negative fourteen and ten months, which-I mean, I know usually you round down, but do you actually round down or do you round towards zero? Because in that case I’d be negative fourteen. I think. I’m still feeling a little fuzzy.”

Jonathan snorted. “Well, if there was any doubt in my mind that we’re related, there it went.” He looked back at the card. “What the hell is the United Empire of the Order?”

Emma took the card back and shoved it in her open backpack. “Nothing. Don’t worry about it.” Her uncle raised an eyebrow. “If you must know, it was a very short-lived magically-backed dictatorship that I helped overthrow five years ago.”

“Jesus.” Jonathan stood, then helped Emma to her feet. “Why are you still carrying around an ID for it, then?”

“I thought I was going back,” Emma said. “This is, um, not exactly the year I was expecting to wind up in.”

Jonathan’s eyes widened. “Is it even safe for you to be telling me all this?” he asked. “What if you change the past too much and you’re never born? Time travel is rare for a reason, the slightest paradox could-”

“I’m not a time-traveller,” Emma interrupted. “Not technically, anyway. I’m from an alternate timeline. Nothing I do here can affect my reality. No paradox risk. Just, um, a slight danger of both realities unravelling if I stay too long.”

“A slight danger of _what_?”

“That’s why I’m here,” Emma said. “Someone from my reality fell into this one, and I need to get him back. Two someones, actually. That’s what’s causing the portals all over Paris. I find them, we all go home, and everything should go back to normal.”

“I see.” Jonathan took a heavy breath. "So… can I ask, in your reality, did, um, did anyone ever find out-”

“I probably shouldn’t tell you too much about my reality,” Emma interrupted quickly. “Just to be safe, that is. Things are… very different here. I don’t want to mess anything up.”

Jonathan looked like he wanted to protest, but he stopped himself. “Fine.” He nodded towards the packet. “What’s with the leaves?”

“Transdimensional sickness,” Emma said. “Rajji took the brunt of it, I think.”

Jonathan went very still. “Rajji?”

“My Rajji, that is, not yours.” Emma scooped her sleeping kwami out of her pocket once more and held her up for Jonathan to see. “She was the only one that could guide her holder through the portal, so I was the only one who could come. But now she won’t wake up, and I-” Emma’s voice broke, and she stopped talking.

Slowly, Jonathan reached out a finger and gently stroked Rajji’s forehead. “Hey, Rajji,” he whispered. “Long time, no see. I missed you.” Jonathan looked up at Emma, and he blinked rapidly for a moment. “Sorry. I, uh, I didn’t think I’d ever see her again, actually. Is she going to be okay?”

“She needs the Guardian,” Emma said. “I thought I’d be able to find my brother, but he’s not the Guardian yet, he hasn’t even been born yet, so-”

“So you came here to find the one person in the city who knows the current Guardian,” Jonathan finished.

“Could you take me to him?” Emma asked.

Jonathan frowned. “I don’t know what things are like in your reality,” he said, “but in this one, that is not information I was ever trusted with. We’ll have to call Gabe.” He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and pressed a few buttons. A moment later, Emma heard it ringing. “Hello? Gabe?”

“Mr. Agreste is indisposed at the moment, Mr. Dumas,” Emma heard a woman’s voice reply. “Is Adrien alright?”

“Adrien’s fine, Nathalie, this isn’t about him.”

“In that case, whatever it is will have to wait.”

“It can’t wait, Nathalie, I just-I need to talk to him right away. I promise he would want you to drag him out of whatever meeting or show he’s stuck in for this, okay?”

“I’d be happy to take a message so that Mr. Agreste can call you back at his earliest convenience, Mr. Dumas.”

“Nathalie. Nathalie. Nat, Nat, sweet, beautiful Nathalie-”

“You should know by now that I’m immune to flattery, Jonathan,” Nathalie replied, but there was a hint of amusement in her voice that hadn’t been there earlier. “Besides, you’re not my type.”

“Gabe doesn’t pay you nearly enough, you know that?”

“I’m painfully aware.” Nathalie sighed. “Very well. Wait a moment.” The line went silent.

“I’m guessing Gabe doesn’t screen my calls in your reality?” Jonathan asked Emma wryly, noticing and completely misinterpreting her expression. “He usually doesn’t here either, but at this time of year he always throws himself even more into work than usual, and it can make him-”

“Jonathan?” Emma heard her grandfather’s voice, his tone deeply annoyed. “What the hell is going on?”

“Um. Well, to make a long story short, your granddaughter from the future showed up and she needs to find the Guardian.”

There was a heavy pause. “Excuse me?”

“Yeah, you know the portals that have been cropping up? Well, they’re from an alternate future timeline or something, I didn’t really get all the details, but she’s got your Miraculous and she needs to find the Guardian before reality implodes.”

Gabriel sighed. “I thought we were past this, Jonathan.”

Jonathan frowned, confused. “Past what?”

“I asked you to keep an eye on Adrien for the week, and you assured me it wouldn’t be a problem, that I was free to leave. Now, not twelve hours later, instead of watching my son you’re calling with some ridiculous story in another one of your desperate attempts to go chasing after Adele.”

Jonathan’s cheeks went pink. “Gabe, that’s not what-”

“I suppose I’ll have to come back early now,” Gabriel continued. “Obviously I can’t trust you to take care of Adrien if you’re going to be chasing after ghosts.”

Jonathan’s eyes flashed. “She’s not a _ghost_ , Gabriel, and this isn’t-”

“We will discuss it when I return.” The line went dead.

“That fucking bastard!” Jonathan slammed his phone down on the desk angrily, before remembering Emma was still there. “Shit. Sorry you had to see that.”

“Why would Grandfather think you were making that up?” Emma asked.

“The first year after Adele went missing was rough,” Jonathan said, somewhat sheepishly. “I’m not proud of it, but there were a couple of times I-but Gabe’s right, I’m past it, I’m staying focused on helping him and Adrien like Adele asked.” He sighed. “Well, he’ll believe it once he comes back and sees you and Rajji in person.”

“I don’t know if I can wait that long,” Emma said. “I have to find Simon and his son, and until Rajji’s healed I don’t have any powers whatsoever.”

Jonathan sat down on the edge of the desk. “Take it from me, just because you don’t have a Miraculous doesn’t mean you’re useless,” he said. “Tell me everything, from the beginning, and we’ll see what we can figure out.”


End file.
